Computer system and a computer device

ABSTRACT

A computer system is provided. The computer system includes a hub board, a common bus, and a plurality of Sibling boards. The hub board has an I/O controller hub, which includes a main communication chipset. The plurality of Sibling boards is coupled to the hub board by the common bus. Each of the Sibling boards includes a memory and at least one CPU. The memory is operative to host a Sibling operating system. The CPU is coupled to the memory. The Southbridge type chipset which resides in the hub board is shared amongst the plurality of Sibling boards. At least one of the plurality of Sibling boards functions as a master processing unit of the system. Sibling boards offer processing flexibility through the means of how they are configured in the system.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of and claims priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. patent Ser. No. 16/009,687, filed Jun. 15, 2018,which is a continuation of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/696,747, filed Sep. 6, 2017, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,002,097, which is a continuation of and claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/293,459,filed Oct. 14, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,779,051, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/853,271, filed Sep.14, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,471,519, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/244,744, filed on Apr. 3, 2014, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,135,203, which claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/818,412, filedon May 1, 2013, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a computer system and a computerdevice, in general, and relates in particular to a computer system and acomputer device that utilizes Sibling boards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware andsoftware components, application programs, operating systems,processors, buses, memories, input/output devices, and so on. Asadvances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push theperformance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticatedhardware and software arrangements have evolved to take advantage of thetechnology, resulting in computer systems today that are much morepowerful than just a few years ago.

One of the areas in which progress has been made is managing computerresources in a distributed computing system. Conventionally, distributedcomputing environments often require complex management schemes andsystems for distributing the tasks that constitute the complete job tobe performed. The complex management system is responsible for collatingthe processing results. Such a distributed computing environmentrequires a linked, dedicated, cluster of computers for performing suchprocessing. The computer cluster usually is a linked group ofconventional motherboards containing local disk controllers via anetwork device. Thus, the network speed is limited by the performance ofcommunication medium, including the network device.

Computer designs have been based on grouping devices that have hadsimilar operational speeds together, so mechanical hard drives whichtypically had millisecond response rates were grouped togetherseparately from CPUs and memory that resided on a motherboard which hadnanosecond response rates. Traditionally disk access has been more of abottleneck problem than a network switch. Thus, a network switch able todistribute processing across various computer systems has not been anissue. Now, however, solid state drivers (SSD) have been developed whichoperate at memory speeds and can even exceed speeds at which somecurrent bus controllers can manage. No longer are hard drives abottleneck of the system, rather they soon will operate at the samespeeds of the typical CPU, memory, or any of the processor local busarchitectures (Intel®, AMD®, Server ARM® chips, RISC®, IBM® . . . )which used to be reserved for communicating between the memory and CPU.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention provide a computer system and acomputer device. Additional aspects are set forth in part in thedescription which follows and, in part, are apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art from the description herein, or are can belearned by practice of the presented embodiments by those of ordinaryskill in the art.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a Sibling computersystem includes first a peripheral hub board, and a plurality of Siblingboards all attached to a common bus. The first peripheral hub board hasa dedicated I/O controller which handles peripherals that operate atslower bus speeds than the Sibling board. The Sibling board itself is areduced computer board with no direct onboard external input/outputcontrolling devices, but is intended to be used in conjunction with aperipheral hub board via a common bus to access the outside world. TheSibling board physically plugs into a common bus that houses theperipheral hub board and receives its I/O support from it. SiblingBoards usually contain CPU, memory, bios, a graphics device, a boardclock and a plurality of host and target bus adapters which allow forflexible usage in the system not possible by conventional motherboarddesigns, and has the capability to have its own operating system thatcan be different from other Sibling boards using the same peripheral hubboard and common bus. At least one of the Sibling boards acts as amaster or first host board by utilizing a HBA which controls the commonbus which the other slave or target Sibling boards communicate with.Each of the Sibling boards has the option of having a dedicated localhard drive, preferably a solid state drive. The common bus connects theplurality of Sibling boards to the peripheral hub board and the firsthost Sibling board, wherein at least one of the plurality of Siblingboards functions as either a processing unit or a disk controller of thefirst host board. The Sibling board technology of the present inventionalleviates the prior art problems of complexity and expense.

Furthermore, the present invention has the capacity to accommodatetechnologies like clusters, distributed systems, and computer applianceswhile having the option of functioning in a realized manner withouthaving to account for the latency of the internal hardware networkswitch to communicate between the Sibling boards.

Whereas existing technologies extend the functionality of a diskcontroller card by embedding Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) unitscombined with other memory devices for the purpose of filtering and prefetching data, the modular Sibling board unit is a fully functioningcomputing unit being capable of hosting an operating system on its own.Thus, a single Sibling board is capable of being flexible enough to beutilized as a host board, a target board or as a disk controllerdepending on how it is configured. In a particular embodiment, it offersan option of seamlessly connecting to a common bus in parallel to otherSibling boards or in series as a disk controller for other neighboringSibling boards. Also, according to a particular embodiment of theinvention, the physical construction of the Sibling board is physicallyand electrically able to snap into the common bus as well as communicatewith the neighboring Sibling board above or below in parallel as aprocessing unit or as its disk controller, and all the connections areavailable onboard to be able to play any of these roles and can beprovisioned according to the host operating system. How complex thepermutations of the combinations of parallel or series configurationsdepend on how many boards are connected to the system and how many CPUunits are present on the board. It also allows for external connectionsto other common bus configurations of Sibling boards as well.

A Sibling board computer can function as a low cost general purposecomputer appliance that can be configured to accommodate any applicationwith a much greater degree of performance than a generic rigidmotherboard computer system. The Sibling board computer can beprovisioned to the exact requirements of an application achievingperformance gains only once available from expensive computer applianceswith highly specialized disk controller cards. Most existing serversutilize rigid generic hardware motherboard construction even if they areutilized as specialized computer appliances. Sibling boards can beconfigured to resemble regular motherboard, a cluster or a computeralliance that utilizes a Sibling boards as a sophisticated diskcontrollers that utilize embedded application kernels designed forprefetching. The Sibling board computer can be configured with oneOperating System or have the option of utilizing Virtualized OperatingSystems. Having a virtual Operation System that doesn't need to shareits physical resources avoids the pitfalls of sharing high performancecomponents amongst other virtualized Operating Systems. Each and everySibling boards can have their own dedicated Operating System resourcesrespectively while simultaneously functioning in an uninhibitedvirtualized distributed manner. The Sibling boards are a realizedmachine when its operating system does not have to share its physicalresources. Thus, the computer that employs realized machines Siblingboard technology seeks to alleviate the common problem that traditionalvirtual machines have of cannibalizing each other's resources whiledramatically improving performance without compromise.

The present invention provides for a flexible configuration of aninternal array of Sibling boards that can also act as sophisticated diskcontrollers that access to storage through a high speed common busfabric but is not limited by the type of bus fabrics used. Siblingboards that contain more than one CPU can have the option of beingfurther sub-partitioned so each of the boards can function as aprocessing unit or as a disk controller through the host operatingsystem. The present invention can employ one fabric technology for theentire system, including the common bus and the disk controller bus orit can employ several different type of HBA (Host Bus Adapters) and TBA(Target Bus Adapter) technologies depending what are more convenientlyavailable.

The present invention relates generally to an inventive form of computerarchitecture that facilitates a completely modular design that isflexible enough to be applied to most tasks to improve performance in acost effective manner. This flexible design of the present inventionencompasses the use of identical Sibling boards arranged in either aseries or parallel arrangement by the manner that they are provisionedin the system. By organizing together on the Sibling board the fastestcomponents of what typically comprises a traditional motherboard, theycan communicate with each other through a common bidirectional bus in anuninhibited manner, which allows access to storage fluidly. Distributedsystems, clustering and similar technologies have relied on a physicalnetwork switch to accomplish in one particular embodiment of theinvention what the Sibling board can provide entirely in I/O componentsby implementing a common bus for high speed throughput to storage whileplacing the traditional bus controller type devices that function atslower speeds on an I/O controller hub on a common bus for externalaccess. The Sibling boards have no requirement for a traditionalmotherboard, daughterboard to operate in an independent manner.

By utilizing the option of an open source virtual machine software thatis modified to recognize the Sibling board as a distinct processing unitcombined with the physical arrangement of the Sibling boards, it permitsthe Sibling boards to be tailored to any type of specific processing ina low cost manner. Whereas current clustering or distributedtechnologies rely on physical network switch that polls a virtualizefabric (such as InfiniBand®), the modular Sibling board system of thepresent invention utilizes an emerging high speed fiber fabrictechnology including Intel's Thunderbolt (Thunderbolt™ is a registeredtrademark of Apple Inc.), PLX Technology PCIe (Peripheral ComponentInterconnect Express), and similar type of Fiber Fabric Hub technologiesto virtualize the network by binding the network address to the Siblingboard ID as an option of a virtualized network address.

An embodiment of the present invention is an inventive form of computerarchitecture that relies on modular Sibling boards that can beconfigured in a multipurpose arrangement depending on how they arephysically arranged and what kind of operating system is defined onthem. The present invention separates the non-essential slowerperforming I/O components of the traditional motherboard architecturesfrom the Sibling board design. The non-essential I/O components of theSibling boards can be omitted. Instead, the Sibling boards are connectedto commonly shared I/O controller hub in the peripheral hub board. Theseand other advantages and features of the present invention are obviousto those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the description of thepresently preferred embodiments herein below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aspects of the present invention become apparent and more readilyappreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a work station implementing the presentinvention's Sibling boards showing a compact structure thereof.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary detailing the flexibility ofparallel configurations.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another exemplary detailing the flexibilityof Series-Parallel configurations

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the other exemplary detailing theflexibility of Series-Series configurations.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a Sibling boards Bus Adapter configurationwhen one bus technology is uniformly employed throughout the system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a Sibling boards Bus Adapter configurationwhen more than one bus technology is employed throughout the system.

FIG. 7 is an electrical schematic block diagram according to the presentinvention of a peripheral hub board and a first and a second Siblingboards showing the main components and their configurations.

FIG. 8 is an electrical schematic block diagram details of acommercially available Host Bus Adapter.

FIG. 9 is an electrical schematic block diagram details of acommercially available Target Bus Adapter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the various embodiments of theinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout the several views. In this regard, the present embodimentsmay have different forms and should not be construed as being limited tothe descriptions set forth herein. Accordingly, the embodiments aremerely described below, by referring to the figures, to explain aspectsof the present description. Terms used herein are for descriptivepurposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.The terms “comprises” and/or “comprising” are used to specify thepresence of stated elements, steps, operations, and/or components, butdo not preclude the presence or substitution of like items or additionof one or more other elements, steps, operations, and/or components. Theterms “first”, “second, and the like may be used to describe variouselements, but do not limit the elements. Such terms are only used todistinguish one element from another. These and/or other aspects becomeapparent and are more readily appreciated by those of ordinary skill inthe art from the following description of embodiments of the presentinvention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a work station implementing the presentinvention's Sibling board configuration showing a compact structurethereof. Referring to FIG. 1, a work station 1 implementing the presentinvention's Sibling boards is depicted. Work station 1 includes a commonbus (also referred to as “backplane”) 10, hub board (also referred to as“peripheral hub board”) 20, a plurality of Sibling boards 30, 40, 50,and 60, and a plurality of storage hard drives comprised of generalstorage arrays, only two of which are numbered, a first optional storagearray 325, and a second optional storage array 425. Work station 1includes a simple rack for mounting the plurality of Sibling boards 30,40, 50, and 60 as part of the common bus 10. Work station 1 can be asophisticated rack that performs functions of a conventional motherboard.

Hub board 20 physically mounts and is shared amongst a plurality ofSibling boards first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40, and additionalSibling boards 50, and 60, which are depicted as only four in thepresent embodiment described in FIG. 1. Each of first and second Siblingboards 30 and 40 includes a first optional local onboard storage 320 ora second optional local storage 420 as illustrated in FIG. 7 for theSibling board's operating system usage and are part of the Siblingboard. An optional onboard Sibling board (preferably SSD not shown)storage 320 and 420 respectively (not shown in FIG. 1) are employed tohouse the Sibling boards local operating systems. These Sibling boardlocal storage drives 320 and 420 are displayed as part of therectangular Sibling board units 30, 40, 50, and 60 in FIG. 1. First andsecond optional onboard storages which reside on the physical Siblingboard (not shown) function as extra general purpose local data storagehard drives and are capable of local RAID (Redundant Array ofIndependent Disks) storage.

First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 are stacked together. Thus,one of advantages of the present invention is that the plurality ofSibling boards can be configured to be more compact and manufactured fora low price because the plurality of the Siblings can be connected toeach other or to the hub board 20 without physical network switches andnodes, and the plurality of Sibling boards 30, 40, 50, and 60 and hubboard 20 can function together as a single motherboard.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary detailing the flexibility ofparallel configurations of Sibling boards. First and second Siblingboards 30 and 40, and a third and a fourth Sibling board 50, and 60which are shown in FIG. 1, are arranged in a parallel configuration.Sibling boards 30, 40, 50, and 60 include first and second optionalstorages arrays 325 and 425, as shown in FIG. 7, which can be accessedeither through the common bus 10, by the onboard Host Bus Adapters (HBA)or a slot on the board intended for an optional high performancedaughter card disk controller.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another exemplary detailing the flexibilityof Series and Parallel configurations. First and third Sibling boards 30and 50 are arranged in a parallel configuration. Second and fourthSibling boards 40 and 60 are arranged in a serial configuration asembedded disk controllers to first and third Sibling boards 30 and 50respectively. This arrangement allows for application kernels to be usedto pre-fetch data from first and second option storage arrays 325 and425. When Sibling boards are configured as Disk Controllers that arecapable of utilizing compression algorithms in a Series arrangement topre-fetch data from the optional storage arrays, significant performancegains can be realized.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the other exemplary detailing theflexibility of Series-Series configurations. Sibling boards 30, 40, 50,and 60 are a serial arrangement, extending from one another and includefirst and second optional storages 325 and 425. The fourth Sibling board60 illustrated in dotted lines represents a plurality of an extendedseries to series of boards. As illustrated in FIG. 4, third and fourthslave mode Sibling boards 50 and 60 can be used as disk controllers forthe previous stage to offer multiple stages of prefetching. Thisarrangement allows that many stages of prefetching can be employed bychaining Sibling boards as disk controllers one after the other.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show examples of some of the possible physical arrangementsthat Sibling boards can have. Sibling boards 30, 40, 50, and 60 havemany options for accessing optional storage. For example, optionalstorage can be connected to the common bus 10. In another example,Sibling boards 30, 40, 50, and 60 can access the optional storage viaonboard HBAs, or when the boards are employed in series as a diskcontroller. Optionally there can be a slot provided on Sibling boards30, 40, 50, and 60 for enabling a physical insertion to utilize thirdparty disk controllers as an optional device. Sibling boards 30, 40, 50,and 60 attached in a serial configuration can be arranged forprefetching. By embedding application code on each level, it can allowthe processing of many stages of prefetching. Sibling boards 30, 40, 50,and 60 attached in a parallel configuration can distribute processingacross them simultaneously in a distributed manner. Thus, according tothe present invention, customized combinations can be implemented totune the Sibling Board computer appliance to any application, whereascurrently available computer appliances are not as flexible.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a Sibling board Bus Adapter configurationwhen one bus technology is uniformly employed throughout the system.Although not illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 in details, Sibling board 40 canbe connected to TBA (Target Bus Adapter) 424 adapter that can be sharedwith the common bus 10 in a parallel connection or can be connected toanother Sibling board above or below as a series disk controller. Thisconfiguration is possible if a singular computer bus technology is usedthroughout the entire system. Especially with Intel based systems, thereare many available competing bus adapter technologies. Sibling board 40can utilize various types of adapter technologies. The entire enclosureof Sibling board 40 has the ability to be connected to common bus 10,with neighboring Sibling master board 30 above, or other target Siblingboard 50, and 60 below. The entire enclosure of Sibling board 40 canhave an optional local storage 420 for the purpose of housing anOperating system. Sibling board 40 can be connected to optional localstorage and can use it to house its operating systems and such.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a Sibling board Bus Adapter configurationwhere more than one bus technology is employed throughout the system.Unlike TBA 424 illustrated in FIG. 5, TBA 424 adapter illustrated inFIG. 6 does not need to be shared with other devices. Rather than havingone exclusive bus technology, Sibling board 40 can accommodate severalbus connector technologies for suitable CPUs that have several types ofcompeting bus adapter technologies. For example, an additional TBA 429adapter illustrated in FIG. 6 facilitates a different bus adaptertechnology, which can be employed for example as a series diskcontroller to a neighboring host Sibling master board 30 (not shown inFIG. 6). Sibling board 40 also has the option of having a slot 430thereon. Slot 430 can accommodate a daughter card therein, which can beused as a storage array disk controller.

FIG. 7 is an electrical schematic block diagram of a first system 1according to the present invention of a hub board 20 and an exemplaryany number of Sibling boards, such as first and second Sibling boards 30and 40 showing the main components and their configurations. System 1can include an Intel or AMD type of system. Sibling boards 30 and 40 caninclude any number of existing CPU technologies including SoC(System-on-Chip) types of processor chips. For exemplary purposes, it isdescribed herewith that computer system 1 has Sibling board 30 andincludes currently commercially used Intel/AMD technology. However, thetype of CPU or processor is not limited thereto and computer system 1can employ various other types of CPU's or processors.

Computer system 1 generally includes two parts: a peripheral hub boardalso called hub board 20 as the first part and a plurality of Siblingboards, such as first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40, as the secondpart. Hub board 20 provides I/O controller hub 202 which is shared withfirst and second Sibling boards 30 and 40. I/O controller hub 202 can beshared with additional Sibling boards (not shown in FIG. 7) that areattached to common bus 10. I/O controller hub 202 can interface withslower peripheral devices like keyboards, mouse, serial connector andvideo. I/O controller hub 202 can also interface with either an Ethernetdevice 207 which can be a router, switch (not shown), a wirelessinterface or including any combination of existing network devices.

First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40, in turn, provide a processingunit 300 and 400 separately of computer system 1. Hub board 20 isconnected to first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 via common bus10. Common bus 10 is depicted as being physically connected to itscomponent parts. Although only two Sibling boards are depicted, computersystem 1 can include additional Sibling boards, which are similar toSibling boards 30 and 40 described herewith.

Hub board 20 can be comprised of commercially available Intel/AMD typechipsets of SoC chips. A chipset is a set of one or more conventionalintegrated circuits that manage the data flow between the processor,memory and peripherals, thus controlling communications between aprocessor (CPU) and external devices. The conventional term “Northbridgerefers to communication links between a CPU to very high-speed devicessuch as RAM and graphics controllers. The conventional term“Southbridge” refers to communication links between a CPU andlower-speed peripheral buses. The aforementioned I/O controller hub 202is comprised of a conventional peripheral bridge type I/O controllerchipset and is connected to a main network switch (not shown). I/Ocontroller hub 202 is directly connected to a super I/O 214, whichincludes a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), an IDE(Integrated or Interactive Development Environment), a parallel port(not shown), and a USB (Universal Serial Bus)(not shown). Controller hub202 is also connected to an external Ethernet 207, and an optionalGraphics card 212. Hub board 20 further includes a clock 206 and a BIOSmemory 216, Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM). Hub board 20is a peripheral hub board sharing I/O controller hub 202 with first andsecond Sibling boards 30 and 40 electrically and in the currentembodiment is physically connected thereto.

Hub board 20 is also coupled to a TBA (Target Bus Adapter) 224 for aconnection with common bus 10. TBA 224 supports a variety of controllertechnologies. For example, TBA 224 can support SATA Ill, Thunderboltinterface (Thunderbolt is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.), PLXTechnology PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), and FiberFabric Hub technologies.

Hub board 20 is physically and electrically coupled to common bus 10 bya conventional board connector 22. Board connector 22 can be configuredto provide power as well.

In addition, common bus 10 physically and electrically connects firstand second Sibling boards 30 and 40 to hub board 20. Common bus 10 whichcan be of a conventional Intel type includes conventional extended bustechnologies, such as SATA III, Thunderbolt, PLX Technology PLIe, PCIExpress, Fiber Fabric Hub. I/O controller hub 202 functions as atraditional Southbridge type chipset managing peripheral devices.Ethernet device 207 provides a network connection to first Sibling board30 and second Sibling board 40 via common bus 10.

First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 are processing units forcomputer system 1. Thus, in some embodiments, hub board 20 can beconfigured with or without a CPU and/or without a memory. In thisexemplary embodiment stead, hub board 20 shares I/O controller hub 202with first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40, which contain a CPU 300and 400 respectively and memory. As depicted in FIG. 7, first and secondSibling boards 30 and 40 are configured without I/O controllercomponents and instead via common bus 10 uses I/O controller hub 202,which resides on hub board 20. Also, at least one of the Sibling boards30 is configured as a master node.

Sibling boards 30 and 40 are depicted in FIG. 7 as comprisingessentially the same components and connections numbered in the 300 and400 series respectively. As such, only Sibling board 30 will bedescribed herein. However, the Sibling boards need not be the same andthey can have different components, configurations and connections inalternative embodiments. In the exemplary depicted configuration of FIG.7, first Sibling board 30 functions as a master node and second Siblingboard 40 functions as a slave node. First board 30 is connected tocommon bus 10 via HBA 322.

First Sibling board 30 includes first CPU 300 that is connected to aplurality of board components: a first clock 306, a first memory 308, afirst graphics controller 312, and a first BIOS 316. First memory 308 iscoupled to first CPU 300 via a memory bus 310. Depending on the type ofCPU employed one or more of the components can reside on first CPU 300chip. First Sibling board 30 is comprised in one embodiment of theinvention of four basic forms of bus controllers/adapters, one of whichis a TBA 324 and three of which are HBA 321, 322 and 323. Eachcontroller/adapter employs an extended bus technology such as a SATAIll, a Thunderbolt Interface, and PCI Express, PLX technology PLIe, andchipsets. The controllers/adapters are configured as known in the art todefine the base controllers that are employed because there arecommercially available bidirectional chipsets. In the present invention,each bus adapter is able to connect to either common bus 10 or anotherSibling board, as desired.

FIG. 8 is an electrical schematic block diagram details of a Host BusAdapter. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of HBA employed in Intel typetechnology, which is generally compatible with other CPU technology. AnHBA includes a high performance PCI switch 326, an NHI (Native HostInterface) 327, and a Host Bus Switch 328. PCI Switch 326 enables a PCIuplink for downstream devices and NHI 327 is a switch that manages DMA(Direct Memory Access). NHI 327 is used for device discovery and otherconventional HBA activities which manage the fabric. PCI Switch 326receives its PCI input from an upstream common bus connection throughHost bus Switch 328. Host Bus Switch 328 can interface with varioustypes of CPU architectures, including but not limited to Intel®, AMD®,Server ARM® chips, RISC®, and IBM®.

FIG. 9 is an electrical schematic block diagram of a TBA (Target BusAdapter). Generic Target or End Bus Controller is a demonstration of thepossible features depending on which type of Bus Controller is utilized.A path can be established by routing a PCI upstream connection from PCISwitch 326 in the particular HBA through host bus Switch 328 and acrosscommon bus 10 to target bus Switch 418 and to PCI Switch 416 in the TBA424. TBA as illustrated in FIG. 9 is compatible with various types ofCPU architectures including but not limited to Intel®, AMD@, Server ARM®chips, RISC®, and IBM@. The types of TBA can be determined to interfacewith them.

Referring to FIG. 7, first HBA 322 connects to common bus 10 and firstSibling board 30 functions as a master node. Second HBA 321 connects toa first optional local storage 320, which can be preferably a SolidState Drive. The third HBA 323 connects to an optional storage array325. Alternatively, HBA 323 can optionally connect to another Siblingboard or a storage array (not shown). The optional first TBA 324 in thedepicted configuration is unused in this example, but is available ifneeded in other examples that are known to those of ordinary skill inthe art. First Sibling board 30 is operative to host a first Siblingoperating system (not shown) and is connected to first memory 308 and toan optional local storage 320.

As depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 7, first Sibling board 30functions as a processing unit of hub board 20. First Sibling board 30is connected to I/O controller hub 202 and to a main network card/switchincluding Ethernet device 207. First Sibling board 30 is connected tothe hub board 20 via common bus 10 and a host connector 32 whichprovides power and physical support.

Second Sibling board 40 includes a second CPU 400 that is connected to asecond clock 406, a second memory 408 via a second memory bus 410, asecond graphics controller 412, and a second BIOS 416. Second Siblingboard 40 also includes a fourth, a fifth and a sixth HBAs 421, 422, and423 and a second TBA 424.

Fourth HBA 421 is an optional host bus controller that is configured toconnect to a second optional local storage 420, and functions as a hostin conjunction with an operating system running in a slave node role.Therefore it does not require a software implementation of a networkswitch. However, it does not limit or exclude the softwareimplementation of a network switch.

Fifth and sixth HBAs 422 and 423 are configured to support thecontroller technology applied to common bus 10, including conventionalSATA III, PLX technology PCIe, PCIe, and/or Thunderbolt. Fifth HBA 422is installed in second Sibling board 40 as an optional spare and is notconnected to other electronic components in this embodiment. Sixth HBA423 can act as a host controller for either another Sibling board (notshown) or can act as disk controller to a storage array 425.

A second TBA 424 is configured to support the controller technologyapplied to the common bus 10 including SATA III, PLX technology PLIe,PCIe, and/or Thunderbolt interface. Second TBA 424 has a mutuallyexclusion option to connect to common bus 10 or to another Siblingboard, for example to first Sibling board 30 or any other additionalSibling boards (not shown). In this configuration, it results in eithera series or parallel connection between the Sibling boards 30 and 40.Second TBA 424 is connected to common bus 10 via a target connector 42that provides both a power and a physical support.

Second Sibling board 40 is operative to host a second Sibling operatingsystem (not shown) and is connected to second memory 408 and to secondoptional storage 420. The second optional local storage 420 can be anSSD (Solid State Drive), for example. Each of Sibling boards 30 and 40is fully capable of hosting the same or different operating system if avirtual Operating System is employed. Such conventional operatingsystems can include, for example, Microsoft Windows, UNIX or Linux.

First and second optional local storages 320 and 420 can have anadditional SSD and a RAID mirror respectively. For example, secondoptional local storage 420 can have a conventional RAID 0 setup withinthe SSD structure. Also, first and second optional local storages 320and 420 can each be comprised of more than one SSD. For example secondoptional storage 420 can have a RAID 0 setup with two SSDs.

First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 function as a processing unitof the hub board 20, and they are connected to and share the I/Ocontroller hub 202 and the main network switch (not shown) residing onhub board 20. First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 do not requirean external network switch to communicate because they are directlyconnected to the shared main network device that resides on hub board 20by common bus 10. Although an onboard network card is not precluded, itis not necessary. That is because communication between hub board 20 andSibling boards 30 and 40 can be facilitated by a unique type of SiblingBoard ID number. Thus, first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 canhave a network connection with Ethernet device 207 that resides on hubboard 20 via such communication.

Thus, according to the present invention, computer system 1 isestablished without external network switches. This results in aspatially compact computer system that can have a relatively low price.Common bus 10 is connected to first Sibling board 30 via host connector32. Common bus 10 is connected to second Sibling board 40 via targetconnector 42.

Each of first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 can contain aninternal software type of network switch to interface with other Siblingboards. Each of the plurality of Sibling boards 30 and 40 includes, forexample, a SATA III disk controller that connects to a conventionalinternal Solid State Drive that houses the operating system of SiblingBoards 30 and 40. Optional local storages 320 and 420, connected tofirst and second Sibling boards 30 and 40, in different embodiments canbe a location for the Operating System, for a cache memory and fortemporary processing and/or swap space.

First Sibling board 30 and second Sibling board 40 are configured sothat conventional Southbridge peripheral interface type chipsets are notrequired. Instead, each is connected to I/O controller hub 202 thatresides on the hub board 20 through common bus 10. Thus, first Siblingboard 30 and second Sibling board 40 cannot function unless it canutilize I/O controller hub 202 which has all the components configuredto interface with the outside world.

The present invention as configured as described above includes firstSibling board 30 and second Sibling board 40 that can be flexiblyconfigured for parallel and/or series connections such that each boardcan function in various roles. Such roles include being a processingunit with pre-filters that is configured or arranged as processing unitswhich can be tuned for the needs of one application and then returned orreconfigured for others. This is distinguished from a conventional bladeserver that is configured to have only one physical board with rigid,fixed pin connectors for daughter boards such that CPUs can only go intodesignated slots.

Each Sibling board 30 and 40 includes a hub/target controller that isconfigured to be accessed by common bus 10 which has ability to containfull operating systems or act strictly as a traditional disk controller.Each Sibling board 30 and 40 is modified from a standalone unit on thenetwork by having included on it a high performance modern PCI typeconnector to connect to a community bus hosted by the hub board 20. EachSibling board 30 and 40 does not function as a standalone unit which isconnected to a conventional network as a typical motherboard. EachSibling board 30 and 40 requires, in the present embodiment, a hubboard, such as hub board 20, in order to be operational. Each Siblingboard 30 and 50 has the option of having its own SSD. In the embodimentof FIG. 7, the SSD is connected to first and second Sibling boards 30and 40 by a specialized internal PCI bus connector. Conventional busconnectors include, for example SATA III or other current, commerciallyavailable high speed controllers. This results in a physicalconfiguration that has a relatively extremely small footprint. Optionallocal storages 320 and 420 function for their respective Sibling boardsfor local swap space of an operating system.

As noted above, the present description of the present inventionutilizes only two Sibling boards, namely first and second Sibling boards30 and 40, each having only one CPU, but the present inventionencompasses a plurality of more than two Sibling boards that can eachcontain multiple CPUs, and the descriptions above are to be construed asalso encompassing more than two Sibling boards.

Thus, according to the present invention, computer system 1 isvirtualized to provide hub board 20 for sharing the peripheral I/Ocontroller hub 202, whereby first and second Sibling boards 30 and 40are utilized for data processing. However to the underlying virtualmachine software that links the systems together at the lowest level,the entire system appears as if it is one computer system. Virtualmachine software enables more than one operating system to be installedon computer system 1.

Further modifications of the presently described embodiment includeutilizing one or more Sibling boards with one of the adaptertechnologies Thunderbolt, PLX Technology PCIe (Peripheral ComponentInterconnect Express), and Fiber Fabric Hub technologies. Thus,depending on which type of Bus Controller is utilized, the Siblingboards can be established with or without virtualization software.

By separating the slower peripheral Southbridge type chipsets to adedicated hub board 20 that is shared by the connected Sibling boards,the system according to the present invention allows the highperformance processing of data to be concentrated specifically on theSibling boards.

The SSDs in Sibling boards 30 and 40 can be used with a conventionaloperating system and/or swap space depending on how many SSDs areattached. As a result of the modular design of Sibling boards 30 and 40,it is unnecessary to install a full operating system on each Siblingboard because one of the Sibling boards is fully capable of operating asa disk controller when attached to another Sibling boards.

A PCI type slot on Sibling boards 30 and 40 can accommodate an advanceddisk controller to access storage. In the present invention, Siblingboard 30 functions as a virtual master node that is fully capable ofalso being an internal domain server and network switch, depending onthe type of server operating system that is installed and how it isconfigured. By having a dedicated virtual operating system on Siblingboards 30 and 50, each becomes a realized machine that doesn't have toshare its physical resources with another the Sibling board. Open sourcevirtual machine software can be modified so that it recognizes each ofSibling boards 30 and 40 in the virtualized computer system 1 and canseamlessly assign Operating System resources to the other Sibling boardsas if they were regular Virtual Machines. It is possible to have therealized machines as part of the installed bios of the machine orinstalled in a similar manner as current virtual machine software isinstalled.

Also, operating systems can be striped across many Sibling boards withone IP address assigned to each one. The amount of flexibility that theSibling boards' technology provides is achieved by the configuration oftheir respective operating systems and the physical arrangement of theSibling boards in the computer system 1.

First and second Sibling boards 30 and 40 achieve their flexibilityentirely from how they are physically arranged in the system and how theoperating system is applied to them. The software that achieves theSibling board's flexibility employs a modified version of the OpenSource Virtual Machine Software and is conventional and known in theart.

By modifying Open Source Virtual Machine software so that it recognizeseach installed Sibling boards 30 and 40 as if it were part of hub board20, Sibling boards 30 and 40 can function as realized machines.

Computer system 1 further includes an optional graphics card 70.Optional graphic card 70 is an optional GPU high performance graphicscard is connected to common bus 10 via a bus connector 72. Computersystem 1 includes an application board 80. Application board 80 can beone or many embedded system that is application specific. Applicationboard 80 is connected to common bus 10 via a third TBA 822. Third TBA822 is connected to common bus 10 via a bus connector 82.

The present invention can be applied to a general computer, a laptopcomputer, MCM in a medical device, regular workstation, a new form ofsuper computer, database machine, genome machine, military device,robots, data center, entertainment center and super graphic CGI machine.The present invention, for instance, can be used for gaming with eachplayer getting their own Sibling board.

The Sibling board technology can be applied to workstations, rackmounted units and even larger computing systems. The present inventionis not just another form of intelligent disk controller. Rather, it is amodular computing unit capable of benefitting from its arrangement inthe system.

The low cost modular Sibling board drive has an internal bus connecterto a local Solid State Drive, which is where its operation system is.Its modular design permits almost any device that comprises the unit tobe easily replaced. If a hard drive fails, it can be easily removed anda new Solid State Drive can be snapped into place. There areconventional miniaturized Solid State Drives that are now attached toregular sized motherboards that act like extended memory. This newdesign takes advantage of recent miniaturization of traditionalmotherboard technology by effectively attaching a motherboard to thephysical footprint of a solid state drive. Thus, the modular solid stateSibling board drive unit can appear to be almost the same shape and sizeas a regular conventional disk drive with all the components of atraditional motherboard accessible in one self-contained modular unitthat is easy to repair and upgrade.

To be able to take advantage of not only the embedded virtual machinetechnology in the current processor chips, open source virtual machinesoftware (like Xen, KVM . . . ) can be modified to recognize the ModularSibling Board as a distinct unit and installed on a virtually assigned“master node” to allow easy set-up of rest of the machine. By having theoption of employing a pliable or fixed cable fiber bus that allowsflexible connections to be made, the Sibling board can be attached to abackplane primarily for physical support.

The present invention has been described mainly with respect to aprinted circuit board embodiment. However, parts of the presentinvention can obviously be incorporated into a multi-function integratedcircuit, thereby further reducing the footprint of the disclosedembodiments, and increasing the speed of response of the invention.

It is to be understood that the exemplary embodiments described hereinare that for presently preferred embodiments and thus should beconsidered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation. Descriptions of features or aspects within each embodimentshould typically be considered as available for other similar featuresor aspects in other embodiments.

I claim:
 1. A computer system comprising: a first board having an I/Ocontroller hub including a main communication chipset; a common bus; anda plurality of Sibling boards coupled to said first board by said commonbus, each of the Sibling boards comprising, a memory operative to host aSibling operating system, and at least one CPU coupled to said memory,said Sibling board configured without a Sibling chipset; wherein atleast one of the plurality of Sibling boards functions as a processingunit of said first board, and at least one of said Sibling boards iscoupled to and shares said I/O controller hub.
 2. The computer system ofclaim 1, wherein said I/O controller hub includes a main network device;and wherein at least one of said Sibling boards is coupled to and sharessaid main network device.
 3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein atleast one of said Sibling boards is directly coupled to and shares saidmain network device, and is without an external I/O circuit.
 4. Thecomputer system of claim 1, wherein said common bus physically andelectrically connects the plurality of said Sibling boards to said firstboard.
 5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said common buscouples the plurality of said Sibling boards to said first board.
 6. Thecomputer system of claim 1, wherein each of said Sibling boards includesat least one solid state memory drive.
 7. The computer system of claim6, wherein each of said Sibling boards includes a conventional hard diskdrive, and has a RAID 0 setup with said solid state drive and saidconventional hard disk drive.
 8. The computer system of claim 1, whereinone of said Sibling boards hosts a first Sibling operating system andanother of said Sibling boards hosts a second Sibling operating systemthat is different from said first Sibling operating system.
 9. Thecomputer system of claim 1, wherein one of said Sibling boards andanother of said Sibling boards host a same Sibling operating system. 10.The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said Siblingboards is a master node and another one of said Sibling boards is aslave node.
 11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said common busis comprised of at least one of a PLX technology PCie (PeripheralComponent Interconnect Express) and Fiber Fabric Hub technologies. 12.The computer system of claim 1, wherein said common bus connects one ofsaid Sibling boards to another of said Sibling boards in a series orparallel arrangement.
 13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein eachof said Sibling boards includes a first disk controller that isconfigured to be accessed by said common bus or to connect with saidmemory.
 14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein each of saidSibling boards further comprises a second disk controller that resideson said Sibling board and is configured to connect to an externalstorage device.
 15. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said firstboard is without a processing unit.
 16. The computer system of claim 1,wherein said computer system is virtualized to provide said first boardfor I/O controller hub sharing, and provide said plurality of Siblingboards for data processing.
 17. The computer system of claim 1, whereina specific function is assigned to each of said Sibling boards such thatwhen said I/O controller hub receives a request for a specific functionfrom a server, said Sibling boards to which that specific function isassigned is connected to said server.
 18. A computer device comprising afirst board having an I/0 controller hub, a plurality of Sibling boardsstacked together, each of the Sibling boards coupled to said firstboard, each of said Sibling boards being operative to host a Siblingoperating system and being connected to a memory; and a common busconnecting the plurality of said Sibling boards to said first board;wherein at least one of the plurality of said Sibling boards functionsas a processing unit for said first board, and the at least one of saidSibling boards is coupled to and shares said I/O controller hub.
 19. Thecomputer system of claim 18, wherein said I/O controller hub includes amain network device; and wherein at least one of said Sibling boards iscoupled to and shares said main network device.
 20. The computer systemof claim 19, wherein at least one of said Sibling boards is directlycoupled to and shares said main network device, and is without anexternal I/O circuit.